AUBURN, Ala. — Former Rutgers point guard Jerome Seagears, who transferred to Auburn in May, is leaving without ever playing for the Tigers, the school announced Monday.

Seagears, a native of Silver Spring, Md., informed the Auburn staff he wished to be closer to his family, according to an athletics department statement.

Seagears was one of several players to leave Rutgers following the firing of former coach Mike Rice in April amid a scandal involving physical and mental abuse of players.

"Jerome came to me and expressed that he hadn't truly recovered emotionally from his time at Rutgers," Auburn coach Tony Barbee said in a statement. "It is important to him that he continues his academic and athletic career closer to home where he can be near his immediate family and get the support system that he needs."

Seagears, who averaged 6.5 points and 2.6 assists while appearing in all 31 games with 19 starts as a sophomore at Rutgers last season, was one of two incoming signees to already enroll in summer classes. The school had filed a waiver with the NCAA in an effort to have Seagears eligible to play this season.

An Auburn spokesman was unable to say the status of the waiver request, but Barbee was optimistic as recently as May 29 during the Southeastern Conference spring meetings in Destin, Fla. that Seagears would be able to play this fall.

"We were fortunate that (Seagears) was looking for kind of a new scenery and we were able to give him that," Barbee told The Montgomery Advertiser on May 16. "Heck of a player, going to be able to add a lot on and off the floor."

Auburn is coming off a 9-23 season in which it lost 16 of its last 17 games in the worst single-season stretch in program history. The Tigers' only scholarship point guard is freshman Tahj Shamsid-Deen, who also is enrolled in summer classes.